CPTnet March 6, 2004 HEBRON UPDATE: February 21-March 1, 2004

Saturday February 21, 2004
No Curfew

Sunday February 22, 2004
No Curfew

Monday February 23, 2004
No Curfew

Kristin Anderson, Diane Janzen, Cal Carpenter, Nathan Bender, Dianne Roe,
and Jerry Levin monitored a large local Palestinian protest in Hebron, which
was one of several that took place on this day throughout the West Bank. The
demonstrations were organized to coincide with the beginning of the inquiry
into the "annexation" wall/fence at the International Court of Justice at
the Hague. (See March 1, 2004 release, "Palestinians protest the Israeli
Wall/Fence.")

Wednesday February 25, 2004
No Curfew

Thursday February 26, 2004
No Curfew

Anderson, Janzen, Carpenter, Bender, Levin, Mark Frey, a seven person CPT
delegation, and a Palestinian friend of CPT living in the Old City went to
the country home of Nafez Assaily. Assaily is the founder of Library On
Wheels for Nonviolence and Peace. They went there to help him try to deal
with the effects of the latest confiscation on Palestinian agricultural
lands owned by him and neighbors several hundred yards from the Israeli
settlement of Harsina. Israeli soldiers ordered Assaily and the CPTers out
of his grape arbor where they were performing the vital task of pruning his
vines. The Israeli Army had been preventing him from doing his pruning ever
since the settlers extended the Harsina boundary by putting up a new fence
in February.

The commander of a small contingent of Israeli soldiers summoned by settler
security guards ordered the pruning to stop and everyone back to the
Palestinian side of the fence. Then he threatened to search Assaily's home
and the Old City home of the Palestinian friend of CPT who had joined the
action. The soldiers also held her ID for several hours.

Her home was eventually searched, but Anderson and Levin reached it in time
to be present when a cursory five minute "search" took place. Because the
Israeli officer also threatened, "Maybe we will see you tonight," two CPTers
spent the night at each house. No night searches took place.

At around 8:30pm four loud explosions were heard from the direction of Jabal
Johar and Kiryat Arba.

Friday February 27, 2004
Curfew in Jabal Johar and Abu Sneineh

Inquiries as to why the curfew had been imposed brought a variety of
answers. Some Israeli soldiers told Frey and the CPT delegation that they
thought some Molotov cocktails had been thrown at other soldiers Thursday
night.

Saturday February 28, 2004
No Curfew

Sunday February 29, 2004
No Curfew

Janzen and Anderson came upon Israeli soldiers at the Beit Romano checkpoint
forcing several Palestine detainees to lean spread-eagled against a wall. A
soldier shoved one young Palestinian man against the wall and kicked his
legs apart. TIPH arrived and watched while soldiers checked the men's IDs.
Several young settler men, at the checkpoint, taunted the TIPHers and CPTers
by yelling, "Nazi!" The ID checking process took about ten minutes, after
which the Palestinians were released.

Later Anderson and Janzen, while staying the night in Beit Ummar, learned of
the hit and run death by a settler car of an elderly Palestinian woman
walking along route 60.

Monday February 29, 2004
 No Curfew

Janzen and Anderson in Beit Ummar saw Israeli soldiers and Israeli police
surround a Palestinian in his car. The police told the CPTers that the man
was driving a stolen car, so they were arresting him and taking him to the
police station in Hebron. A friend of CPT told the CPTers that this happens
often. Even though a Palestinian will have purchased the car in good faith
and even has a proper bill of sale from the previous Israeli owner, the new
Palestinian owner is nevertheless still arrested, charged with having a
stolen car and fined.

Tuesday March 1, 2004
No Curfew

At the invitation of the University Graduate Union's private girl's school
(Madrassat Raabitah) English Club, Frey and Kathy Kapenga engaged in a two
hour English Language dialogue with the girls and their teacher. They talked
about CPT's work in Hebron, the accuracy of movies about life in the United
States, and the challenge facing exchange students. CPT has been invited to
return every two weeks to carry on the dialogue. The teacher cautioned that
because of the local cultural context two subjects would have to be dealt
with very sensitively: religion, i.e. Christianity, and sex.